CIA Adds Eight Stars to Memorial Wall For Fallen Officers
Each year, new stars are carved into the marble of the CIA’s Memorial Wall in the agency’s main lobby. Each represents an employee who died while carrying out his or her duties, often clandestine.
When it was first dedicated in 1974, there were 31 stars. After a ceremony held Monday, the number is 125. As is true almost every year, some of the new stars honor fallen officers whose names and operations remain classified.
Four of the eight new stars represent officers whose names if revealed might unveil classified operations.
A fifth was added to honor Mark S. Rausenberger, an 18-year agency officer who died while serving overseas. The circumstances of his death remain classified.
In the past, the agency has reviewed the history of clandestine operations to determine if a name can be declassified. The identity of the man honored with the first star, Douglas Mackiernan, wasn’t revealed until 2006, 56 years after his death.
The three other new stars pay tribute to David Bevan, Darrell Eubanks, and John Lewis. All died when their plane crashed while carrying out a mission for Air America, the CIA’s Vietnam-era "airline," in Laos in 1961.
In remarks to those assembled before the wall Monday, including families of the fallen, CIA Director Mike Pompeo said that each star represents "a life that is dear to us … We remain forever devoted to them, as they were to us. And we will strive to make them proud of us, as we are of them."